Friday, 17 April 2015

Why is political criticism seen as a personal insult?

This graph from Alex Massie's latest post over at The Spectator says a great deal about the current state of British politics:

At heart, the measure of how likely people are to see criticism of the political party they support as a personal attack on themselves is a measure of the sheer tribalism of their supporters, the degree to which they're political loyalties stem entirely from how they see themselves. As can be seen, no party is free of it, but (with the exception of the mildly Welsh Nationalist Plaid Cymru party) the more fringe the party is in nature, and the more extreme its policies are, the more tribal their supporters are likely to be.

To anyone those familiar with Chinese affairs, the phenomenon of people defending politicians who do the indefensible, and responding to criticism with angry invective purely because they have been taught to uncritically identify themselves with those politicians is nothing new. To see it become such a mainstay of British poltics is disappointing, however.

Happily, the likely failure of all of the fringe parties to make any great impact after the next election, and the compromises that will have to be made if they wish to make an impact, are likely to result eventually in a more realistic outlook amongst their supporters. For the time being, though, the supporters of the fringe parties can still engage in magical thinking whereby all that need happen is for Scotland/Wales to become independent, or the UK to leave the EU, or for 'neoliberalism' (whatever that is) to be brought to an end, and all their problems can be solved.

4 comments:

Some decades ago, the same tribalism could be found in at least one mainstream party in Germany - the social dems. And while intelligence and a preparedness to see the facts is basically a good thing, I doubt that the supporters of mainstream parties today are really more intelligent than the old folks of the 1970s or 1980s.

I don't think people are more clever today - I think they are rather indifferent. That's my perception on this side of the Channel, anyway.

As long as both "tribalism" and indifference lead to the same result - ignoring the critic -, ic no great problem in either attitude.

Don't know how the "tribalists" you have in mind tend to behave, but most of those I know are quite likeable, and often very reliable - they just won't discuss their ideals with you, knowing that you might, in their particular view, "belittle" them.

Mind you, I'm not speaking out for soccer hooliganism here - but I do have respect for people who burn for something on the inside.